jfrazierjr has kindly taken this request. The original thread can be found here (http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?14633-Two-very-different-maps-for-ongoing-D-amp-D-campaigns). The quote below has been modified from its original version.

I'm looking for a semi-professional style: something that looks awesome and has been made by a pro (read: not by me) while not necessarily being something enormous prints can be made of and exhibited in a fine-arts museum. Somewhere around 3000x3000 or 4000x4000 pixels would be great. Something along the lines of the following two maps would be awesome:

37959

37960
I'd love cities, ruins, etc to have different graphics, if possible. For instance, the cities of one nation should have one graphic while those of another nation should have a second graphic and any ruins or fortresses should have a third graphic (actually, one set of graphics which includes cities of different sizes). Since the maps are for D&D campaigns which are still far from over, I'd like to be able to add new cities and such to the maps as the campaign advances, so i'd be most grateful if you could provide all the individual city/ruin/etc graphics, as well as the font(s) used for the names, along with the maps when they're done. :)

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The map I need depicts the continent of Lleimilla, which has been ravaged by a nine-century war. The continent was home to two great empires which, as they expanded, clashed violently and began to destroy each other. Originally, Arkhosia spanned the southeast and Bael Turath covered the northwest, more or less. Now, there is no definite boundary between them; as lands were conquered and later reclaimed, fortresses built and cities destroyed, the lines on maps changed rapidly and eventually faded away. Now the architecture of each empire can be found almost all over the continent, and in many places an odd hybrid of both architectures is present; the predominance of each style varies depending on the region, but even a few elements of each empire's lifestyle can be found in even the deepest recesses of the other empire. The war ended not because one side won, but because decadence, corruption, inner conflicts, awfully powerful spells cast by both sides, and centuries of war exhausted both sides' populations, resources and power. Everything is now rather destroyed and impoverished, but life goes on. Recently, humans have begun to pop up all over the place, so there's a multitude of small towns and villages only a few years old dotting an otherwise bleak and wrecked landmass.

I'll provide a sketch I made below. If it helps, Lleimilla is far from being the only, or even the largest, continent in the world; there is a large continent to the west and at least one large sontinent somewhere else, but the people of Lleimilla have not explored these (or vice-versa, with one tiny exception which happens to be crucial for the storyline). Lleimilla is entirely situated in the southern hemisphere; the equator shouldn't even be visible in this map, although the continent isn't all that close to the south pole either (maybe somewhere along the lines of 40-55 degrees southern latitude). Its climate would be subtropical leaning towards slightly chilly had it not been for terrible spells designed to convert large expanses of fertile land to barren deserts. I'll provide an indication of where forests, jungles, deserts and so on are on the map, though.

37958
As far as the cities and towns go, I have an updated/revised version which I'll post sometime this week. Meanwhile, this sketch and my post should provide the necessary geographical information. Region names have also changed, so for now please use them only as a reference, not for the actual text on the map.

For scale, the distance between Razortear and Vor Kragal should be roughly 80 or 100 kilometres (i.e. walkable in a day or two if one only stops to eat and sleep).

All arkhosian cities are carved into the sides of cliffs. A few fortresses aren't, as they were built hastily wherever needed while a powerful enemy exerted much pressure. Turathi cities, on the other hand, are usually vast metropolises with closely packed buildings. On the other hand, the new (mostly human) settlements are all rather small and medieval in architecture; they are built entirely out of wood and stone.

As I mentioned, Lleimilla was originally subtropical in climate. Although a large portion of the continent remains so, vast regions were transformed into desert by turathi dark magic. The extension covered by arid wasteland where only small and hardy shrubbery grows has its western border just west of Razortear and the river south of it (Razortear and Pass lie at the edge of this desert), extends eastwards all the way to the coast, doesn't extend very far north from Razortear's latitude (for instance, Vilesoul Manor lies outside of it), and doesn't quite go all the way on the large peninsula just west of the Heartlands.

Vor Kragal and everything west and north of it sit on rather comfortable grasslands. This region is extremely fertile, particularly the area around the great river-thing which nearly splits the continent in two (from Vilesoul Manor all the way to the northern tip; south of Vilesoul it's all dead).

Please include other mountains and mountain ranges in the desert region above the Heartlands as you see fit. While the whole region around Teldorthan and Vor Kragal is flat, the regions at the northern edge of the continent may also have a few mountains and hills. Any other rivers (anywhere except in the stormy region) will also be welcome as long as they follow the basic rules of physics (i.e. they flow from higher altitudes to the sea or to a lake, etc). The enormous river-thing in the middle of the continent is actually coastline, not river, so it doesn't have to follow this rule (in fact, if you're going for different shades of blue for different ocean depths then I'd like the river-thing to sort of continue into the sea in the form of a very deep scar on the seabed, as if it were the boundary of two tectonic plates which are drifting apart).

A small forest sits slightly north of the point directly between Pass and Vor Kragal. It extends almost as far north as Teldorthan and then turns northeast, though not for very long. Feel free to turn the north and northeast of the continent into a realistic mix of forest and grassland.

To the southwest (the whole jagged coastline, as well as all the islands there), the climate is very cold (though not tundra-like) and extremely stormy. The southern tip of the large peninsula directly northeast from where it says "Stormweather" should also sport this climate, and the contrast between hot/arid and cold/stormy should be stark on this peninsula, since there is no grassland buffer between the two opposite climates.

This has not changed in the new version: The Heartlands are the richest arkhosian lands. The Seven Pearls of the South, the seven largest and mightiest cities of Arkhosia, form a string which runs horizontally (slightly curved). All of these cities are carved into the sides of cliffs, so there should be an east-west-running mountain/cliff range where the cities are; they all face northwards so the sun's light will hit them all year (we're a little farther south than what would be the Tropic of Capricorn). Io'vanthor, the central city, is the capital of Arkhosia and also its largest city. Vestiges of its greatness should be visible, as on the other six cities of the "string of pearls". Their architecture is almost entirely arkhosian (buildings, spires and defensive walls all carved out of the cliffs). All seven cities are built in layers or levels, each separated by defensive walls and united by small ramps or stairways. Please don't include the names just yet, but everything else in this paragraph is good.

This hasn't changed either (except, once again, for the names): Vor Kragal is the enormous capital of Bael Turath. About a third of it has crumbled and fallen into the Underdark, the underground world which extends throughout the world. What remains of the black city is covered in a permanent dark cloud, whatever the weather outside. The lands in the immediate vicinity of it and the other two main turathi cities, Harrack Unarth and Vor Rukoth, should look slightly corrupted. Vor Kragal's architecture is entirely turathi, but the other two cities, while also large, did come under arkhosian rule for some time, so a few arkhosian elements should be present (even though no mountainsides are immediately available to carve stuff out of).

Teldorthan is a new human town of moderate size; despite it being only a town (i.e. not a city), it is the largest settlement on Lleimilla which is neither turathi nor arkhosian in nature. It is mainly built of stone and fully resembles a medieval town. This town is probably the only other thing which hasn't changed, but more on that when I upload the version with the corrected town locations and names.

jfrazierjr

08-22-2011, 08:18 AM

Ok.. Step one.... basic shape and a "token" background for contrast.

next step is to read the entire post and figure out mountain placement...

The grid and town information is just there temporarily for scale reference between the two mentioned towns. Each square cell is 250px and represents approximately 100km/62mi

jfrazierjr

08-22-2011, 09:26 AM

Ok.. after reading the brief, I am not quit sure if there is a way to do this map in the style of my Baldimar map with a pseudo ISO perspective. Given the East to West mountain range and the requirement than the cities be located on the north side, the mountains would cover the cities unless the map were rotated to a different cardinal direction so that North is right, left, or down(best). While most people think of things in up=north, there are a number of maps here that buck that convention, so it's not unprecedented.

The other options are to go with more of a semi-realisticy top down satellite view(like this (http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?3707-The-Paltik-Ocean-region) and this (http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?2904-September-Entry-The-Broken-Coast)) OR with a top down line drawing (such as this (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/wd_maps/FRposterLarge_150.jpg) or the third map down on this page (http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?15286-Some-maps-for-Zeitgeist) or this (http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?2379-Dreeston-and-Surrounds) and yes, there is a reason two of those maps with this style are from our own Torstan...)

While I can do the former, it has been a number of years since I did that style, so might take a while of playing to figure out. I had tried in the past to do the later style, but did not work out to my satisfaction at the time, but would be willing to give it somewhat of a go again... Also note that on the latter two maps, the mountains are at a much lower scale and thus any I would make (in either style) would be much more representative than actual scale based.

Please advise as to the course of action...

Magrathean

08-22-2011, 02:21 PM

Yep, your post made me realise that I was a little stupid to ask for a map with a mountain range and a bunch of cities carved into the northern side of said mountain range.

Obviously I know nothing about making maps on a computer, so I'm afraid I can't give you any advice on that, but I can say that it wouldn't bother me the least bit if you turned the map upside-down (actually, I guess it would make much more sense for a map made in a southern continent to have south on top and north at the bottom, since top is usually associated with higher hierarchy and so on...).

Still, any decision you make to fix this problem, be it putting south on top or using a satellite perspective, I'll be happy with.

jfrazierjr

08-22-2011, 03:18 PM

Ok.... I will think about that.... Are the cities actually on a cliff at the edge of the mountain range(similar to my mountains in the north on the Baldimar map), or do you must mean that the cities are partially up the mountain slopes?

jfrazierjr

08-22-2011, 09:12 PM

Ok.. here is what I understand about the biomes from the text. Of course, the colors/symbols are placeholders for their respective biomes.

light Green is "grassland"
Blue is "stormy" land
Yellowish/dotty is Desert
Dark green is hopefully viewed as a forest...

Dark/white with white lines is the mountains...

Magrathean, please let me know how to adjust these areas.. also... I am not sure IF I will be doing this inverted view or not.. it really depends on how well I can pull off the top down mountain views to my satisfaction as well as some of the other questions I asked earlier.

Magrathean

08-22-2011, 09:15 PM

The cities are actually carved into the mountains; no additional construction material was used, just the sort of stuff you use in mines to dig a tunnel (except here they dug buildings and houses and streets). That being the case, I guess the cities would "occupy" part of the slope of a mountain, beginning at ground level and ending several dozen metres (or a few hundred metres in the case of the larger cities) above that. So no, no cliff.

I found a few real-life examples of similar things: Petra (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petra) and Huápoca (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huápoca) (only imagine they're on mountainsides and not on cliffs).

Thanks for asking. :)

Magrathean

08-22-2011, 09:22 PM

Ah, you beat me to the post!

Ok, I've uploaded the geographical/climatic adjustments. I apologise for my description not being clear enough. :(

Please note that the huge mountain range where the Seven Jewels are located should also have a desertic climate. The island just south of that should be slightly moutainous, I suppose, if we're going to have realistic geography based on realistic plate tectonics; I'm sorry for not clarifying this either (I just realised I didn't).

jfrazierjr

08-23-2011, 11:52 AM

Ah, you beat me to the post!

Ok, I've uploaded the geographical/climatic adjustments.Ummm upload? As in picture?:|

Please note that the huge mountain range where the Seven Jewels are located should also have a desertic climate. The island just south of that should be slightly moutainous, I suppose, if we're going to have realistic geography based on realistic plate tectonics; I'm sorry for not clarifying this either (I just realised I didn't).ok... Your description of to the coast made me think of the split continent coast as well as the name heartlands lead me to think they were not close to being desert climate.... Perhaps you could mock up a quick drawing with a few simple colors to give me an idea of what goes where....

As for the stormy islands/peninsula's I am not quite sure of any method to signify that, so if you have any suggestions or perhaps reference material, please let me know. Only thing I can think of is perhaps some type of darkish tint and some rain/storm clouds, but I am not sure how well I can pull that off from my head, so if you have some reference material that would help, please point the way! Also... any reference material might change the style of the map(top down vs ISOish), so the sooner I can figure that out, the better to avoid having to redo any of the mountainous areas... I am now thinking something more like Torstan's map you linked to first might be the way to go vs a top down approach depending on what I can find to signify the storm areas....

Magrathean

08-23-2011, 09:30 PM

Yep, I edited your map last night but totally forgot to upload the new version. My mistake.

Here it is...

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As for the stormy weather, I suppose just a darker shade of green, such as that in the northernmost part of the following map, would work wonders:

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Thanks! :)

jfrazierjr

08-27-2011, 09:01 PM

Just a quick few changes to get a sample for the mountains and a border in place... Let me know what you think about the border and the mountain style.... they are larger than I would likely put on the final image...

Magrathean

08-28-2011, 04:10 AM

The mountains are perfect (I understand you'll use a reduced version, as you said; I mean that the style is perfect)! As for the border, you've got it (assuming the islands around the desertic region are also desertic themselves). :)

Thanks for posting the update.

jfrazierjr

08-28-2011, 04:26 PM

Ok.. still playing with a few different stylistic elements before "reset" and bringing everything all together into a single final approach. I created a symbol for sand dues and threw a few down along with some light "squiggles" to represent the desert nature... Magrathean, whatM do you think about the desert area as a whole now? I still have to do some transitional blending of course between the two geographical area.

I know you said that you were ok with me adding additional forests and mountains outside the geographical "required" elements, but did you have any ideas? Two things I was thinking about were if there was a mountain range separating the desert from the grasslands since this would be an logical barrier... thoughts? Also, I was thinking about the Stormlands being (at least partially) mountainous as an explanation for the stark climate change.

ravells

08-28-2011, 04:54 PM

I really like the mountains JF! really looking forward to seeing this come together!

Magrathean

08-28-2011, 09:52 PM

Dunes and mountains make sense.

As for the border being defined by some geological feature, this need not be, since there used to be no desert; the arid climate is due to a spell of terrible proportions having been cast over the region by warlocks from one empire in order to starve the opposing empire to death. Still, it would be cool to have a few mountains along the border. Let's see how that works out.

Mountains in the stormy region makes sense. I like that idea. :)

jfrazierjr

09-10-2011, 06:59 PM

Ok.... first real mountain attempt on this map, hopefully they are in a style the buyer wants. Want to get comments before adding more mountains in other locations. Also not sure if they are to big or not at this point or if I need them to go smaller. Total time spent on mountains..umm perhaps 4 hours...

Magrathean

09-10-2011, 07:10 PM

Hey!

Thanks for the update. Well, the mountains probably do need to be a little smaller (not too much, though; maybe 2/3 or 3/4 their current size). But their poisition is perfect. I assume the surrounding terrain will be a similar shade and texture so the mountains will sort of "fade" into it and look natural...? :)

jfrazierjr

09-10-2011, 08:07 PM

Yea.... I will throw in a few hills "in front of" them to round them out and likely a few on the other side depending on available room. I reduced the size by 25%... How is that? Figured I would just add either hills left/right or I could add some another mountain or two...

Magrathean

09-10-2011, 08:52 PM

That's perfect. And I love the idea of hills. :)

jfrazierjr

09-10-2011, 09:10 PM

Ok.. Did a bit of blending now that the mountains are the right size....Will add a few hills later... perhaps tomorrow... Then on to more mountains in other places... will do line work first to make sure placement is good and if so, will add color and shading...

Ohh.. and I am going to ditch the sand dunes and do them some other way... perhaps a few in "groups" as I do not really like the scattered ones I had there, and also perhaps with some type of colored "speckles" in addition to the color.

Magrathean

09-10-2011, 09:45 PM

Fade looks great. Looking forward to the hills! :)

jfrazierjr

09-11-2011, 03:56 PM

Go some hills done around the "southern" mountains... If this is ok, I will next move on to line work on a few more mountain locations to see how that jives with the world....

At this point, the only thing permanent is the mountains and water, though I plan to do a bit more touch up on the water to make it appear like there are some waves toward the end.

Magrathean

09-11-2011, 04:36 PM

I like the hills. The only "complaint" I would have at this point is the fact that the bottom (northern) border of the hill-covered region is a rather straight line and you usually seldom see straight lines in nature (i.e. it should be a little more irregular), but let's see how that turns out when more hills and mountains are added to the rest of the map; my concern might even disappear.

Thanks for the work done so far!

jfrazierjr

09-11-2011, 07:07 PM

Yep... and I agree... I just wanted to get your take on the style before doing any more. Do you have a preference in terms of how to make a bit more "natural" or would you like me to just throw some more around. My initial thoughts were to curve along both shores like the mountains so that both coasts would be a bit hilly for a short way inland, but the central part of the landmass would retain the "number" of hills already present...

Once i have that part figured, I can start adding more mountains in other places.

In this quick mock up, black was my original thought, but adding a few more merging in at the center and fading out the higher "south" they go to make a very gentle "U" shape. The blue is another possible way to break up the "straight" line. Let me know what you think about these two or if you have alternate suggestions... once we get that knocked out, I will do some line work to place other mountains for your approval.

Magrathean

09-17-2011, 04:16 AM

Replied via pm. Terribly sorry about the delay.

jfrazierjr

09-17-2011, 02:53 PM

Ok... another test... Increased the size to give the continent a bit more "breathing" room.

A new mountain style. Same lines/shading on each, just swapped out colors. This mountain style is much closer to Torstan's own and side benefit is that it's much faster to do. Of course, colors can vary from these and different mountains on the map may also be different colors if desired to make regions blend a bit better...I tend to think the light tan mountains go well with a desert color.

Magrathean

09-21-2011, 04:38 PM

Sorry for another delay. I foresee this week and probably the next (i.e. all of september) as awfully loaded with work. But october should be better for me.

Love the darker sea texture. As for the mountains I guess which style you choose depends on what the rest of the map will look like; it's a little hard to choose without the terrain textures in place. But for now just use the new style if it's easier to make.

Concerning the colouring, I agree that different colours could be used in different areas. I'm thinking the light tan for the desert region, the dark brown (perhaps with a very subtle hint of green) for the grassland/plains regions, and the grey for the stormy region where all the islands are.

Magrathean

09-21-2011, 04:39 PM

By the way, I'm curious to see what hills would look like in the new style.

jfrazierjr

09-21-2011, 07:27 PM

By the way, I'm curious to see what hills would look like in the new style.Well... the hills would be similar, just smaller. Really, it's just a matter of shading. Also, with the smaller mountains, there would be fewer hills. Kind of like in hot air balloon, the higher you go, the less detailed the individual elements look. As an example, just take look at the maps you linked to. For Torstan's map, the only hills I see are ones that don't butt up to mountains while the Lykarnia map has none that I can tell(a few smaller, but they appear to be the same general shape as the mountains themselves and not distinct as "hills.)

With that said if you "need" hills, they would be more of a few small ones here, a few there, to give the impression of a hilly region. Overall, they will like very much like the previous ones only smaller and probably with fewer of them. Or something along the lines of Torstan's map or something like (if your familiar with it) the map of Nentir Vale from the D&D 4E Dungeon Masters Guide. Give me a day or three and I will throw up some examples, but I will also be trucking on with the rest of the map at the same time.....

Magrathean

09-21-2011, 07:50 PM

Ok, I see your point. Come to think about it, I don't specifically need any hills anywhere except for one small region in the "stormy" section of the map (I'll tell you where exactly later on), so I don't mind if there aren't any hills. Maybe just smaller mountains at the edges of large mountain ranges will do the trick (like on the Lykarnia map).

I am familiar with the Nentir Vale map, and those hills actually look pretty much like what the "stormy"-area hills I told you about look like inside my head. As I said, we can discuss those hills later.

jfrazierjr

09-24-2011, 07:47 PM

Blocked in mountains in the Stormlands...need some shading next, but I will be doing more mountain outlines before that gets done.

Magrathean

09-24-2011, 09:34 PM

That actually looks good (I mean, the mountain locations and boundaries). Makes sense that the cold air and the rain are kept from the more temperate regions by an enormous mountain range. Perhaps we could leave the tip of one or two of the peninsulae mountain-free so it'll look a bit more natural, and perhaps the peninsula which you left flat and one or two of the larger islands could have a mountain or three as well. What do you say? Would it look natural and not too cluttered?

jfrazierjr

09-25-2011, 11:53 AM

That actually looks good (I mean, the mountain locations and boundaries). Makes sense that the cold air and the rain are kept from the more temperate regions by an enormous mountain range. Perhaps we could leave the tip of one or two of the peninsulae mountain-free so it'll look a bit more natural, and perhaps the peninsula which you left flat and one or two of the larger islands could have a mountain or three as well. What do you say? Would it look natural and not too cluttered?

Let me play around with it to see if I can figure out something that might look fairly natural. It's rather hard with peninsulas, though, so will take a bit more thought. This is because mountains are typically formed due to continental shelfs colliding and one side buckling upwards. Another option for the "fingers" might be "very" large fjords. of course a magical solution might also fit the bill too... Don't get me wrong, I am not a geologist, just thinking out loud.

Also, was thinking about the desert. My thinking here is that if this was originally all arable land(as I assume the label "The heartlands" implies) then the desertification would more likely form something more along the lines of the american southwest as opposed to the typical "sandy" desert associated with the Sahara(BTW, most of the "hot" deserts have very little of the windblown sand dunes in terms of total covered area). I wonder if I can come up with some type of "cracked earth pattern" that might look good....

Magrathean

09-25-2011, 12:13 PM

Sonora/Arizona-style desert totally makes sense. You're right about that. And yes, the Heartlands used to be just about the most fertile terrain on Lleimilla (well, as fertile as the rest of the inhabitable places). Magic did that.

As for the peninsulae, they're natural in the storyline of my campaign. I hadn't thought about them being cluttered with mountains, but it actually looks good and makes the weather make sense, as I said on my previous post. That said, I think we can rethink them without too much trouble: the region is indeed at the boundary between tectonic plates and formed by plate collision, but, since it's a coastal region with a lot of water and a relatively deep seafloor, the mountain range resulting from the collision is mostly underwater, with the islands and some of the peninsulae being those mountain peaks that are actually tall enough to protrude above the ocean surface (like all the islands Micronesia and Polynesia in the southern Pacific). Some of the peninsulae, like the one farthest south (the one you left without mountains), could have already existed and therefore only new mountains formed on already existing land. I think that fits with the current mountain pattern as well as with the story.

Fjords actually makes sense as well, but then we'd have to reduce the amount of mountains. I recently fell madly and hopelessly in love with Norway, and my favourite character from that campaign actually comes from that region, so if you can turn it into a fjord you'll be my hero. Otherwise, we can stick with the tectonic-collision idea.

Thanks again for all the hard work.

jfrazierjr

09-26-2011, 07:57 AM

Sonora/Arizona-style desert totally makes sense. You're right about that. And yes, the Heartlands used to be just about the most fertile terrain on Lleimilla (well, as fertile as the rest of the inhabitable places). Magic did that.

As for the peninsulae, they're natural in the storyline of my campaign. I hadn't thought about them being cluttered with mountains, but it actually looks good and makes the weather make sense, as I said on my previous post. That said, I think we can rethink them without too much trouble: the region is indeed at the boundary between tectonic plates and formed by plate collision, but, since it's a coastal region with a lot of water and a relatively deep seafloor, the mountain range resulting from the collision is mostly underwater, with the islands and some of the peninsulae being those mountain peaks that are actually tall enough to protrude above the ocean surface (like all the islands Micronesia and Polynesia in the southern Pacific). Some of the peninsulae, like the one farthest south (the one you left without mountains), could have already existed and therefore only new mountains formed on already existing land. I think that fits with the current mountain pattern as well as with the story.

Fjords actually makes sense as well, but then we'd have to reduce the amount of mountains. I recently fell madly and hopelessly in love with Norway, and my favourite character from that campaign actually comes from that region, so if you can turn it into a fjord you'll be my hero. Otherwise, we can stick with the tectonic-collision idea.

Thanks again for all the hard work.

Lol... sorry.. the fjords was more of a joke than anything....I mean really... just how often does one get to say such an awesome word such as fjord in everyday conversation? So I take very little chance I can to say it....fjord, fjord, fjord!!!! Anyway, without some crazy explanation, fjords would not really work here at the scale the map is in terms of the width between the peninsulas. I can thin down the mountains toward the ends of each "finger" and make some small hills as well as throw some mountains on several of the islands.

Do you want the southern most peninsula also mountainous (or hilly?) If you want mountains, I would suggest running a line of mountains along the coast of the desert to join them up. Just let me know...

Side note: MUST RESIST URGE to make the heartlands "desert" have mesa's.... lol... sorry... but my warped mind wants to put in some mesa's and/or canyons in there.... but since you have noted that they were mainly arable land used for farming/range animals, that would not make much sense geologically. Anyway... move along.. nothing to see here....ignore this last paragraph....:D

Magrathean

09-26-2011, 09:45 PM

I know the "fingers" are too wide to be fjords like the norwegian ones, but I thought you were talking about really wide "fjords" (as in cliff-coasts and the sort of vegetation and climate one would find in fjords). Sorry I didn't catch on it being a joke.

And yes, I agree that it's an awesome word. =D

For the southernmost peninsula I had thought about a mountain or three (considerably fewer than on the other peninsulae). I like your idea about the desert-coastline mountains.